Unfortunate and unacceptable: Cong disassociates from Pitroda’s comment, Pirtoda quits 

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 8, 2024

The Congress disassociated itself from the remark of Indian Overseas Congress chairman Sam Pitroda over his remarks comparing East Indians to Chinese and South Indians to Africans.

Notably, Pitroda has resigned from the congress party following the row over his racist comment. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has already accepted his resignation.

A clip from a May 2 interview of Pitroda with The Statesman went viral on Wednesday. In the video, he tried to explain India’s diverse nature by likening East Indians to Chinese and South Indians to Africans.

“We could hold together a country as diverse as India, where people on the East look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arab, people on North look like maybe White and people in the South look like Africa. Doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters,” he told The Statesman.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Congress national general secretary Jairam Ramesh said: “The analogies drawn by Mr Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India’s diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies.”

Reacting to the statement, Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah said that Pitroda’s comments were unacceptable and uncalled for. 

Borah further said that the Congress party doesn’t support such useless utterances.

“Yes Prime Minister, action has been taken by our party against Sam Pitroda, and resignation has been accepted; But will there ever be any action taken against those who are running a hateful political agenda by saying fish-chicken-#mutton-#temple-#mosque-#mangalsutra-#Muslim,” Borah added.

Pitroda’s remark sparked a controversy in the northeast on the day when the third phase of voting was going on Tuesday.

Calling the statement ‘Racist’, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the people of Northeast are proud Indians and not Chinese.

“After I heard Sam Pitroda’s statement, I looked at myself in the mirror and I appeared as a proud Assamese and Indian, not as a Chinese. This is a racist comment. It’s condemnable. I don’t know what he is trying to prove by making such a statement. There is one thing that those who are near Rahul Gandhi always insult the northeast,” Sarma said.

“People of the northeast are proud Indians. You should never challenge our nationalism…Sam Pitroda and Rahul Gandhi are not two separate people. Pitroda is Rahul Gandhi’s friend, philosopher and guide. Why are you (Congress) not disowning him (Sam Pitroda)? How is this a useless issue? This issue is connected to our sentiments. You are completely advocating racism. If this is useless, then what is useful for Priyanka Gandhi?,” he added.

Responding to Pitroda’s statement, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh said” “We are proud Indians. He should apologise to everyone for the racist remarks. Some elements are trying to divide us but we won’t allow them to do so.”

Featured Image Source: Twitter